A shifter is disclosed in German patent 39 13 269 ('269 patent), best illustrated in FIGS. 2-5 thereof. In the '269 patent, a shifter pin is fitted on the shifter shaft and cooperates with slots in a flat shift gate, which is fixedly mounted in the transmission housing.
The shift gate of the '269 patent has the disadvantage that even if, for example, to reduce the amount of space required, it is curved in the shape of a circular arc (best seen in FIGS. 4 and 5 at 25, 26, 27) and therefore takes up a large amount of room within the transmission housing.